The Alabama Department of Public Health has changed the way it reports coronavirus numbers.
On Friday, the department announced its has revised some of its graphs to reflect and combine both confirmed and probable coronavirus cases. In June, ADPH began breaking out confirmed vs. probable COVID cases but had listed its total as only confirmed cases. Now, in most places – including the daily demographic update – those case numbers are combined.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases are people who have positive PCR tests, whether they are showing symptoms or not. Probable cases fall into two categories: people who have been exposed to a person with COVID-19 and have symptoms but have not been tested or people who have had rapid antigen tests.
“Confirmed and probable cases are investigated and contacts identified in the same manner. As more antigen diagnostic testing has been approved under emergency use authorized by FDA, the number of probable cases in Alabama continues to increase,” ADPH said. “More healthcare providers, including physicians’ offices, urgent cares, and some emergency rooms, are using antigen testing. Thus, ADPH has revised some charts and graphs on its dashboard to capture the most current situation for COVID-19 in Alabama.”
“Rapid antigen tests, while diagnostic tests, are counted as probable due to antigen tests showing lower ability to determine if a person (COVID,)” ADPH said. “In other words, point of care antigen tests are less sensitive and show more false negative results than laboratory performed PCR tests.”
Alabama now has 152,98 cases – 136,055 confirmed and 16,928 probable. The confirmed number is up 501 from yesterday; probable cases are up 161.
The state has had 2,501 COVID deaths.
Here are latest county-by-county case numbers, including both presumed and confirmed cases. The figures in parenthesis include the increases from the previous day:
Autauga – 1,785 (+12)
Baldwin – 5,588 (+62)
Barbour – 886 (+1)
Bibb – 657 (+1)
Blount – 1,618 (+1)
Bullock – 607 (+1)
Butler – 914 (+1)
Calhoun – 3,548 (+14)
Chambers – 1,172 (+4)
Cherokee – 614 (+2)
Chilton – 1,593 (+5)
Choctaw – 351
Clarke – 1,104 (+4)
Clay – 592 (+95)
Cleburne – 389 (+7)
Coffee – 1,365 (+6)
Colbert – 1,675 (+9)
Conecuh – 537 (+1)
Coosa – 172
Covington – 1,403
Crenshaw – 542 (+2)
Cullman – 1,911 (+4)
Dale – 1,399 (+7)
Dallas – 1,793 (+2)
DeKalb – 2,435 (+3)
Elmore – 2,691(+18)
Escambia – 1,614 (+3)
Etowah – 3,540 (+19)
Fayette – 395 (+5)
Franklin – 1,790 (+9)
Geneva – 638 (+4)
Greene – 303
Hale – 649 (+5)
Henry – 508 (+1)
Houston – 2,935 (+15)
Jackson – 1,589 (+8)
Jefferson – 19,833 (+81)
Lamar – 377 (+7)
Lauderdale – 1,740 (+17)
Lawrence – 628 (+7)
Lee – 5,945 (+18)
Limestone – 2,135 (+16)
Lowndes – 657 (+3)
Macon – 483
Madison – 7,978 (+51)
Marengo – 726 (+2)
Marion – 971 (+3)
Marshall – 3,967 (+6)
Mobile – 13,471 (+22)
Monroe – 590
Montgomery – 8,865 (+13)
Morgan – 3,327 (+13)
Perry – 542 (+1)
Pickens – 668 (+2)
Pike – 1,205
Randolph – 660 (+6)
Russell – 1,765 (+2)
Shelby – 6,043 (+30)
St. Clair – 2,340 (+10)
Sumter – 438
Talladega – 2,177 (+6)
Tallapoosa – 1,166 (+2)
Tuscaloosa – 8,744 (+90)
Walker – 2,330 (+11)
Washington – 561 (+2)
Wilcox – 532
Winston – 745